Guess who Austin's latest hero or rather heroin is. Well it's me!! With gas touching 4 $ per gallon here..and most around here driving Texas size pick up trucks; I do feel like the hero of the town with my 50 cc bike that I drive to school.
I stopped at the gas station to fill up my tank, which I do once in two weeks (its tank capacity is 1 gallon) and lasts me about 100 miles.. The guy who pulled up by me in the gas station driving a HUGE truck looked down at me and asked what is the mileage on your bike. Boy, was I proud.. Don't look down on me sir!! this is a 100 mpg bike.
To all those people who drive behind me on all your SUVs and trucks, I know you wish I'd just stick to the bike lane on the side. Hello, I'd telling you guys you will soon wish you had a bike like mine, if not now very soon!! It's coming gas will hit 10$ and you will return all the respect the little guys in texas deserve with interest.
Ofcourse I bow to all the cyclists everyday.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
travails of vocabulary building-an adult point of view of a child's point of view
For those of us who have had to prepare for the 'GRE' or the likes this is familiar. We increase or try to improve our vocabulary at a jet rapid pace.. Mind you I am not talking about those extraordinary few who have worked on these matters from childhood (reading books, newspapers and Wodehouses) in search of those many good words.. I am talking about the ordinary lot of us who act only when push comes to shove.. With GRE looming on us we cram all the words we could into the real estate called memory which 'oh! so modestly designed by our creator and so suboptimally used by the created', and then we are told using those words as often as possible is a good way to reinforce that learning. Our overcrowded flash cards dance in front of our eyes... and we say 'gangrene' instead of 'chagrin'; 'precipitous' instead of 'precious'.. the confusions are endless.
Of late I notice that the 4 year old in our family is in a similar situation. Having to learn a lot in two different languages, added to it the burden of knowledge and the compulsion to show it all off. Here are some of the results of this phenomenon.
-My stomach is 'sunset'-for upset
-'Beef'root it has lot of 'spiders' so its good for you. (We understood from what she said that.. beetroot has lot of fiber and so its good for you. So her teacher told her. or one has to think that it's a carnivore's interpretation of a herbivore's world ;)
-His 'per' is advait. 'refering to her brother's name, replacing name with per.. quite involutarily.
I wish I had written down all her one-liners.. they would have made a great script for a stand up comedian.. much better than 'Bush'isms.. Oops!! What did I just say!! I will update when i remember more
Of late I notice that the 4 year old in our family is in a similar situation. Having to learn a lot in two different languages, added to it the burden of knowledge and the compulsion to show it all off. Here are some of the results of this phenomenon.
-My stomach is 'sunset'-for upset
-'Beef'root it has lot of 'spiders' so its good for you. (We understood from what she said that.. beetroot has lot of fiber and so its good for you. So her teacher told her. or one has to think that it's a carnivore's interpretation of a herbivore's world ;)
-His 'per' is advait. 'refering to her brother's name, replacing name with per.. quite involutarily.
I wish I had written down all her one-liners.. they would have made a great script for a stand up comedian.. much better than 'Bush'isms.. Oops!! What did I just say!! I will update when i remember more
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Departure of my favorite teacher-Koteswara Rao Sir
I feel like I am struck by this deep sense of grief, the first news of death that has impacted me in such a way in my entire 30 years of life. He was one my favorite teachers. I am proud to say the Mathematics that I can proudly claim to have understood is everything he taught. He was a teacher with an attitude; absolutely brilliant, orthodox in his approach to the subject and unorthodox in his teaching style.
I still remember those days when I was conscious of every thing I wrote in Mathematics, I remember those days whenever I did a division of variables, I heard him demanding in my head "boothulu rayaddu.." As simple as this formula a+b = a^2-b^2/a-b, 'what happens when a=b????'; he would have said in his satirical tone. Obviously we didnt care, the very thing we are defining could be undefined and we couldnt care less. How he would try to nail these things down into our thick heads!! Not caring was equal to blasphemy for him.
The voice faded as years passed by. I learnt to ignore that voice. I told myself a little blasphemy wouldnt hurt, especially when there was no one to notice.
Now he is no more... how relieved must I be.. nobody to scrutinize those little definitions and indefinitions, I am free to commit crime in the name of Mathematics..So it seems!! His voice seems to be echoing more than ever. Sometimes absence has effects worse than presence. If my conscience takes over from his absence, there couldnt be a better tribute to my favorite teacher.
He was not a perfect human being. He would smoke in class non-stop, I would have detested that from any other person. He was the only one from whom I was willing to endure the smoke in return for part-taking in his motivating class. And most of his fans would agree.
The world is going to miss one of the best Real Analysis teachers ever.
He was the only person who called me 'amma lata', and lata amma for sure will miss him. 'amma lata' ra vachi cheyyi board meeda.. that was the prize I would vie for in his class. and when he thought we nailed it down.. he would say 'Thats fantaaaastic!' This sentence was music.. if he thought something was fantastic, can you imagine how elated a student could be?
Here are some of the things his students say after his death
- I will finish the last homework he gave us on hyperbolic functions more sincerely than ever
- that he once said "idi vastadi, dani babu vastadi, dani tata vastadi.. naa students ki aa pogarundali" in his traditional bandar accent.. refering to a tough problem.. that his students should have the arrogance to solve the toughest of tough problems in Math.
- one student says.. "may his soul get plenty of cigarettes to smoke even in heaven".
Source-Orkut Community
I still remember those days when I was conscious of every thing I wrote in Mathematics, I remember those days whenever I did a division of variables, I heard him demanding in my head "boothulu rayaddu.." As simple as this formula a+b = a^2-b^2/a-b, 'what happens when a=b????'; he would have said in his satirical tone. Obviously we didnt care, the very thing we are defining could be undefined and we couldnt care less. How he would try to nail these things down into our thick heads!! Not caring was equal to blasphemy for him.
The voice faded as years passed by. I learnt to ignore that voice. I told myself a little blasphemy wouldnt hurt, especially when there was no one to notice.
Now he is no more... how relieved must I be.. nobody to scrutinize those little definitions and indefinitions, I am free to commit crime in the name of Mathematics..So it seems!! His voice seems to be echoing more than ever. Sometimes absence has effects worse than presence. If my conscience takes over from his absence, there couldnt be a better tribute to my favorite teacher.
He was not a perfect human being. He would smoke in class non-stop, I would have detested that from any other person. He was the only one from whom I was willing to endure the smoke in return for part-taking in his motivating class. And most of his fans would agree.
The world is going to miss one of the best Real Analysis teachers ever.
He was the only person who called me 'amma lata', and lata amma for sure will miss him. 'amma lata' ra vachi cheyyi board meeda.. that was the prize I would vie for in his class. and when he thought we nailed it down.. he would say 'Thats fantaaaastic!' This sentence was music.. if he thought something was fantastic, can you imagine how elated a student could be?
Here are some of the things his students say after his death
- I will finish the last homework he gave us on hyperbolic functions more sincerely than ever
- that he once said "idi vastadi, dani babu vastadi, dani tata vastadi.. naa students ki aa pogarundali" in his traditional bandar accent.. refering to a tough problem.. that his students should have the arrogance to solve the toughest of tough problems in Math.
- one student says.. "may his soul get plenty of cigarettes to smoke even in heaven".
Source-Orkut Community
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